Professor Skolnik has received an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for a project entitled “Using choice architecture to improve criminal trials and sentencing”. Choice architecture is a term used to describe how options are framed or presented, often with the goal of influencing a specific choice. For example, a cafeteria might place healthy food items at eye-level to nudge customers towards healthier meal choices. While choice architecture is increasingly being used to shape public policy and routine decision-making, few scholars have examined how it can be used to ameliorate the criminal justice system.
Professor Skolnik’s project will analyze how choice architecture can be used to improve criminal trials and sentencing, with a specific focus on the decisions made by defendants, prosecutors, judges and jurors. Increasingly, lawmakers, policymakers, and courts use choice architecture to counteract biases, promote better outcomes, save costs, and maximize efficiency. But despite its increased use, few scholars have examined the overall role of choice architecture in the criminal justice system, or considered specifically how judges and lawmakers can harness its power to meaningfully address some of the criminal justice system’s most persistent problems. Professor Skolnik aims to bridge the gap between choice architecture and criminal law to ultimately identify legal frameworks, policies, and practices that can improve fairness and result in better criminal justice outcomes. This approach to law reform cam lead to evidence-based improvements that will bridge existing gaps between criminal law, criminology, public health and behavioural economics.
Congratulations to Professor Skolnik!